Give me Liberty or Give me Death! Updated Feb 20
by SpiritOfEowyn
Summary: Zekaya stumbled back to Yavin IV 22 ABY a vetern of the worst war AGFFA has ever seen, a mystery Mara, Luke and even Kyp must figure out if they think they can handle it. Not A Mary Sue! Extremely cannon.DN,NJO. YJK kids involved. MEGA update, 4 big cha
1. Chapter 1

:There is a new beginning that makes this story make more sense from the very beginning, So even if you have read this before, reread the prologue:

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death …

_Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. --- Benjamin Franklin_ Twenty-two years after the 'Battle of Yavin' another kind of battle is about to begin. 

_Jaina awoke to darkness struggling to figure out what was real, was this a dream, or had that been? Her fingers were slimy and cold against the light blanket covering her.  
_

_She was being spun around in some dance. Jaina looked down to see she was wearing a dress, and ran out of the palace, a man had been chasing her. She could hear his footsteps on stone. She'd run towards a forest, to the top of a hill where there was a huge fire blazing. Everyone stared at her and she became aware that she was late.  
_

"_I," She began but found her breath stolen by the night. _

_She walked up to the fire. Mara looked sick in the firelight, but she stood too close, it would consume her with the wood!  
_

_The large fire burned so brightly and yet so cold. The closer she got she realized that there was something besides ships made of wood, It was her baby brother- Anakin was on a pyre! His eyes were open, boiling, crying.  
_

"_No-" she'd protested. "He's not, I didn't fail him. Anakin!"  
_

"_You were too late," Her father said, voice thick with blame. His eyes lacked the determination that had always given her strength.  
_

"_Where's Jacen?" her mom had asked looking so lost, her hair was short, her eyes rimmed in red. _

"_I didn't abandon him!" But she felt like she had. Why had she been at a dance when her brothers were lost?  
_

"_I'm sorry for the loss of your brothers," Kyp said with unreadable eyes.  
_

_She was balancing on the edge of a sword that was pointed at her family.  
_

_Why were her hands slimy? Jaina hit the light switch on the wall.  
_

_Her old friend Zekk's body was laid out in the hospital room she was in. His skin was gray. She screamed until her voice wouldn't. So much blood on her hands. So much blood. He wasn't the only dead person in the room anymore. The room was stacked with dead bodies.  
_

_She felt her way along the walls trying not to think.  
_

"_Jasa?" Where was he? Their bond had always comforted her in the past no matter how far apart they were. She'd never really been alone. Why was their connection silent?  
_

"_Jasa!" _

_Jacen was beyond the doors but why couldn't she feel him? Where he was in the force all she could feel was a dark storm.  
_

"_I thought you were dead!" She cried, rushing towards the welcome sight. "We've got to get out of here, we're stronger together."  
_

_She grabbed his wrist, to drag him along, but she still couldn't feel any of his emotions.  
_

"_Jacen you're scaring me," she whispered.   
_

_He grabbed her other hand forcefully so they were facing each other. Before her eyes Jacen changed into Emperor Palpatine even down to his voice.  
_

" _Dear Jaya, there is no darkside there is only **my** side."  
_

_His voice sounded so reasonable but his eyes were empty. She felt rather than saw that he had killed millions of people and everything became dark as the sword turned in on her. _

"Jaina, what's wrong? Jaina!'"

Jacen turned the light on and rushed towards her. 

Jaina hurled one of her tools at him and screamed. "Get away from me you monster!"

It hit him straight on though luckily not dead-on. 

"Umph."

He fell.

"Kriff! Why'd you do that for?"

Jacen rubbed his chest and sounded offended. A dark purple bruise showed through the top of his shirt.

"Stay away from me, you Sith!" she hissed and grabbed a hydrospanner. "I won't let you kill me." Luckily her room was filled to capacity with heavy metal objects perfect for throwing at predators.

"Jay-ya. It's me, Jacen. You were having a nightmare," he said shaking his head incredulously. "And even if I was a Sith, I would never hurt you, stupid."

Jaina took several deep breaths, trying to calm the panic enough to focus. Nervously, she probed him with the Force, afraid of what she would find.

She could feel him! Jacen was there in front of her, a shining familiar presence. She could feel his annoyance, and the remnants of the worry over her safety.

"Jasa?" She dropped her weapon.

"Coming to your senses?" Her twin asked struggling to get up.

He was assaulted again as she ran to embrace him. Her voice was squeaky and she was holding on so hard that she was making the chest wound worse. She knew it as soon as she reached him but she refusing to loosen her grip.

"Ani and Zekk were dead and Mara was dying and you, you were the Emperor and-"

"Shh. It was just a dream." He patted her head. "There is no need to try and kill me."  
Jaina shivered trying to dispel her fears. It was just a dream. Jedi had dreams that meant nothing, right?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter ONE **

**rewritten**

The morning sun reflected off of the stone temple grounds causing Mara Jade to cover her eyes while her eyes adjust. Something brought her out here, but she can't explain what. A sense of danger far distant, urgency, and despair all coming from outside. She frowned and tried not to think of the warm bed and the even warmer husband she had left because of her 'feeling'. Skywalker would be dealing with the beginning of Jedi classes tomorrow and she didn't want to wake him up because she'd had a 'feeling'. Most especially since she didn't know how to explain it, and as much as she loved him, with anything of this sort he would want to analyze the emotion to death.

Mara heard rustling and crashing from the left. Either this enemy was horrible at stealth or so arrogant they didn't think to hide their approach. Or bring a ship. Some of the tension in her shoulders left. Maybe one of the students was out early?

A bruised and battered woman in her late twenties or early thirties stumbles out of the swarming trees. Her mannerisms made her seem drunk, or drugged. She looked like she had stumbled out of a war zone. She had the look of a war veteran, someone who has seen too much death and can't believe that there is anything beyond that. People like that didn't often last very long.

The few students outside gave her weird looks and avoided the woman like she a stormtrooper. A twi-lek student looked relieved to see her.

As Mara got closer to her the woman she thought she heard her say, "Is this a Corellian Hell?"

"No, welcome to the Jedi Academy." Mara said wanting to smile at the irony, but the newcomer was inclined to see that as a threat.

"Are we dead?" The woman seemed almost happy at the prospect, which threw Mara slightly off guard.

"No." Mara noticed how strong the force was with the woman and chanced to glace at her belt where two lightsabers were attached.

"You're safe here, however you got here."

"Safe?" she echoed.

Mara grabbed the woman's arm to keep her from falling, and knew immediately that this wasn't an act.

"But you're going to have to tell me your name."

"Our name?" The woman shook her dark hair. "My name- Yun- no! That wasn't it. It's Zekaya, we think."

"We?"

"Me, I think. Just me now." Zekaya rubbed her eyes.

Mara frowned. Schizophrenia? She hoped the Jedi healers would know what to do. Mara led her towards the temple. She stopped the barefooted Tatooine kid along the way, what was her name, and asked her to run ahead and tell the med center.

"We're going to get you some help."

Jedi Healer Frida noticed how skiddish her new patient was.

"I'm Frida, I'm a healer. I'm not here to hurt you." Frida said grabbing the girl's arm .

"What is your name?"

"Zekaya-"

Frida proceeded to take a blood sample to testing. Death Sticks? Zekaya watched the blood leave her body with indifference.

"That hurts." Zekaya looked around the room. "I guess this is real." 

"Did you take a hallucinogen?"

"Did we?" Her patient became confused. She almost seemed to expect a response. 

"How did you get here?" The healer said as she looked to Zekaya's wounds. Several new lacerations and a few deeper wounds she was certain were made by a lightsaber. Underneath was a pattern of scars that either indicated a life of battle or a pattern of abuse.

"We don't know, I wished to die, and I couldn't and then I was in the forest."

Such words were repulsive to the healer. Life was sacred.

Zekaya touched one of the walls. "I know that that doesn't make sense."

Mara led the healer out of the room.

"Test for Schizophrenia while you're at it."

Frida nodded and stood at the door when Mara went back in.

"Who trained you?" Mara asked evenly, allowing herself to be direct.

Zekaya clearly searched for a convincing lie. "Trained? We-"

Mara would have none of it.

"How did you get those?" Mara asked, gesturing at the lightsabers. "Either you were trained …or you managed to kill two Jedi."

Zekaya looked shrewdly at the floor before looking her directly in the eye.

"I killed Jedi." She said vehemently, daring her to argue.

The Healer gasped, but Mara's surprise was of another sort. She stood up, and crossed her arms in frustration.

Frida left using the blood tests she had to do as an excuse.

Mara knew that Zekaya was lying. At least as to how she had gained the lightsabers. She had been trained in interrogation by the Empire and that much was clear. Who in their right mind would claim to have killed two Jedi at a Jedi Academy? It was a virtual death sentence. But that was it wasn't it? This girl wasn't exactly in her right mind, and she wanted Mara to kill her.

"You're lying. You trying to get us to kill you. Why?"

Zekaya refused to meet her eye and wiped her face with her hands.

Skywalker chose that moment to arrive, none too pleased that he'd had to learn from someone other than his wife that she had found a visitor. Whatever he had been about to say died on his lips.

"He will come for me, to use me in his twisted power-- and you will wish for death too." Zekaya mumbled, wrapping her arms around her legs making her look much younger.

"Whoever he is, we can handle it." Luke promised.

"No, no you won't, he's too powerful and you wouldn't have the will to." Zekaya lamented. In fact Mara noticed after the first time Zekaya had stared at her husband she had made a point to look at anything else.

Zekaya gained more semblance of sanity after her outburst. Was it for their benefit?

_I wish you'd told me about our visitor, _ Luke sent to his wife.

_Would you like me to tell you when I use the refresher too, dear?_ she sent back.

Luke hid his frustration, burying it deep where hopefully noone would notice. 

"Trust me, if the Jedi here can take down the ghost of a Sith Lord, and thwart him through a three year old, and personally see the downfall of Darth Sidious, we can stop whatever tyrant decided to come after you."

Luke reached out to place his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Trust in the lightside." 

Zekaya seemed memorized by his words but leaned away from his touch.

"There IS a lightside to the Force," Zekaya said as if she was trying to convince Mara and Luke.

"Yes there is." Luke reassured her. "So you see you're safe here, we can learn from one another. I just need you do one thing."

"What?" Zekaya said.

Luke was certain his gentle nephew Jacen would describe this newcomer as a scared feline. So many of his old students had been like this, certain that he was trying to use them. 

"Your lightsaber."

"Lighsabers," Mara corrected.

Luke frowned

_I'll explain later, _Mara sent.

Zekaya unhooked the weapons from her belt and carefully handed them to him.

"But I want them back." She stated as terms in her agreement to cooperate.

"Fair enough, we just don't allow-"

"Strangers into your school heavily armed?" Zekaya said more reasonably than her recent instability would lead you to belive she was capable of.  
"Right," Mara said, confused by her sudden streak of sanity.

"Then you'll want this." Zekaya said devoid of emotion.

Mara tensed as Zekaya pulled out a blaster, but relaxed when she placed it on the table. Mara pocketed the weapons.

There was a knock on the door, the healer was back.

"Sir, I need to attend to my patient." Frida said.

Luke smiled at the girl who kept her eyes fixed on his robes.

"We will talk later about providing sanctuary."

Zekaya nodded.

"I think I scared her." Luke said to his wife as they left.

Zekaya watched as the couple left the room.

"Well." Frida said rubbing her hands on her legs before grabbing a bottle from a drawer. Her master had never warned her about patients like this when she had undergone training. She hoped she would learn a better 'bedside manner' soon. She gave her patient a purple tonic to drink that matched the color in her dark eyes. Zekaya's nose twitched but she downed the tonic anyway.

"This will make you feel better. Whatever drugs were in your system seem to have left it, but the other results are still inconclusive." Frida said smiling as comforting as possible.

Zekaya stood up sharply as something must just have occurred to her. "My blood, you took my blood!"

"Calm down, we just had to do a few tests to see how to help you." Frida tried to send out soothing thoughts despite her misgivings. A patient is a patient.

"Did you look at my DNA or midiclorian count?" Zekaya became threatening.

" Midiclorians? No, not yet, but-"

"Don't look at my DNA." Zekaya said with such Force strength that Frida gasped. 

There was a darkness to her eyes that imprinted itself upon the healer as much as she tried to push off the weight upon her mind.

"You will get rid of the blood you have left." Zekaya ordered while waving her fingers in front of the healers eyes.

"I will get rid of it," Frida said in a monotone her eyes glazed. She would do as the more powerful presence ordered.

Zekaya covered her mouth.

"I-" Guilt and shame covered her words but the healer was oblivious to everything but her task.

Frida went for the door.

"I didn't mean-I didn't want to-" Her nails clawed at the chair she was in.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 2 **

She was a shadow. She was a shadow being burned alive by the sudden piercing light. She breathed and solidified.

"I think it worked, Hirina."

Someone lifted her body up.

"We won't be able to tell until we take her out of the room."

She heard sounds but they were from only one set of ears. She felt so profoundly alone and isolated. She'd always been part of a whole, and spent most of her existence able to share her feelings completely knowing that at least one person understood. At least one person knew her. But now she was alone. 

"Is he, did he?" She looked at a man that in different circumstances, in a different life she would have loved.

The war had changed everything and everyone.

His normally pale face was ashen, the fire of his spirit seemed to have left. She didn't used to be such a crybaby but weren't tears fitting of this man who had always tried to protect her? Her mind became sharper, no longer under fog. This wasn't an accident, it had been planned.

She ran her hand over his eyes. She had seen so many dead bodies that few were able to affect her like this.

"There was nothing we could do, he was in too deep. He'd given up his personality, his will, to the bond." Her blonde friend said rubbing her thumb on the back of her hand..  
"It was like he dissolved." 

Or rather the body that used to be her friend, that was someone entirely new.

"Poor kid never even had a last name." The gray-eyed Avi said, guarding the door.

Hirina glared at Avi until she apologized for being so inconsiderate.

He loved me. He loved me so much that he ended up giving up himself to be with me.

Zekaya, that was the name people had called them when they were together, and that was the name she would take in his memory. Zekaya shed the last traces of her youth. Thirty. I'm thirty, so much life wasted.

"We're just lucky that it worked on you." Hirina had promised to protect her years ago, but Zekaya hadn't known until now, just how serious she was about it. Just to have tried to make her one person again, defying-him, must have put her in danger.

"Look, we're got to get out of here, he's gonna know she's awake, and if we want to keep her one person and _sane_ we'd better head beyond the unknown regions," Avi said.

"He hasn't gotten that far yet, has he?" Hirina asked supporting her as she tried to stand.

"I was safe-" 

"You're safe because you remind him of- you know and he feels responsible. Back before he changed or maybe your 'unique' makeup makes you immune," Avi argued. "He played both sides of the war, he's not going to be content with his bit of the galaxy, he wants it all. He's beyond Sith." Avi's voice held disgust and regret.

Hirina's eyes changed slightly. "Now you're rambling like I used to."

"Safe from who?" Zekaya asked looking between them. Her friends winced. Then it hit her like an asteroid field.

"No."

Had even the Force betrayed her? He'd made her like this, he'd manipulated her like no one else could have. This wasn't an accident. Her old love had lost himself and died- because HE wasn't who she'd known. He'd used and betrayed her and everything they'd stood for. Everything their friends and family had died for. Something in her broke.

They watched her reaction carefully. She hated Hirina's sympathy but Avi's despair was even worse. She'd given up.

"No." No one argued with her when she was this set never mind when she was pissed. "I'm gonna kill him."

Hirina and Avi looked at each other knowing that she couldn't.

Zekaya's mind wandered through memories as her body flew autopilot.

Dwelling on what she had tried to lock away.

"_He's not capable of that! You don't know him like I do!" She'd said vehemently. She wouldn't have been so heated about it if it didn't reinforce her own darkest fears and suspicions lately. Of the changes she didn't want to admit._

"All I'm telling you is what I've been told by people who can't be bought and by my own visions." 

"Well they're just fear induced nightmares not Jedi visions."

"And if they're not you're in danger." The taller woman had crossed her arms to resist shaking her.

"He would never betray ME even if somehow he became the darkest Sith ever."

Avi shook her head. "He's not the man you knew." 

"The war changed all of us. I am not going to hide from-" She had become flustered.

"You think I like telling you this? He was my master! The man you knew is gone." Avi's eyes said it all. "I just can't let you walk into danger like that. Honoring who he was won't allow it."

Zekaya put her hands over her ears. "No. I have to believe that there is still good in him! I have to."

She'd searched him out then as she did again now. For vastly different reasons. It flew against reason to seek him out now. She couldn't even tell her family she was back to normal. She was probably the only trained Jedi who stood a chance against him in a fight but not even the force could get her to bring herself to attempt to kill him. But for the freedom of galaxy she had to try.

"You will never know peace."

It would be better to be dead anyways.

Avi pressed a few more buttons on her ship wishing desperately that she was even a passable pilot. The shipboard computers kept reminding her that a bunch of good pilots were shooting at her. At least her utter panic was making her fly so erratically that she was a difficult target. She would be screaming if she wasn't already fighting the urge to hyperventilate.

"And this is why sensible people don't deliberately get on the bad side of power hungry force users slash galactic politician." Avi said pushing more buttons that diverted power to the shields. "Especially ones who are good at manipulating people! Some historian I am."

What was that trick that Jedi had shown her?

Avi reversed the forward thrusters, throwing her forward in the cockpit and stalling the engine.

"Meditate." She watched the faster ships pass right by her, going too fast to shoot effectively. Avi took a deep breath and then flipped the switch like it was a fan.

"Come on Come on." The fighters had turned back in her direction. "Come ON!" Tears of frustration leaked out.

There was no place to go, she was betrayed, there would be no sanctuary.

A hundred years from now when people regained their senses in this part of the universe historian and layman alike would say of their dictator- "He seemed like such a nice guy." Even the Jedi were under the soon to be absolute dictator's thrall.

The engine roared pulling her back towards the planet. Avi arched her neck trying to look behind her to get some sense of what direction they were really going.

"Set coordinates to my save point."

She angled the ship so she would bounce off and not burn in the atmosphere.

Even though she knew that when you were about to experience extreme trauma tightening your muscles was the opposite of what you should do Avi couldn't help it. The atmosphere rushed forward.

"Overcompensate by a factor of 3.1. Now."

Avi wished her ship had a hyperdrive engine instead, as her skin felt like it was melting right off.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 3 

Luke and Mara finished dinner.

"How were classes?"

"It's still the first week, so they are all still in awe of their teachers so there is less to do."

"Are you concerned how the students will react with your niece and nephew in their classes? You have to be careful not to show favoritism."

"Jacen and Jaina are used to that kind of attention, they can handle themselves, I'm not too worried," He shrugged. "Did you know I had to stop the Hapan prince from sending bodyguards for his daughter?" Luke was purely amused.

Mara snorted. "This is the safest place for any child, besides if the Chancellor of the entire New Republic can trust her two children here, Hapes heir to sixty odd planets can't be protesting." Mara took her dishes toward their small kitchen.

"Ah but as you said," Luke came up behind her "It isn't as if he has relatives running the school." 

"Doesn't matter." Mara said turning around. Luke would protect his students, or anyone else who needed it, as if they were his own-- Mara shook her head to banish that line of thought.

Luke smiled. "Parents can be very overprotective."

"Hmm." Mara looked distant for a moment, no doubt thinking of her own family or was it the family they planned to have?

"Are you going to tell me about our visitor now?" Luke said to change the subject. It was clear she wasn't up for a cheerful argument.

"I sense darkness in her, but I don't think she's an enemy, I just think she's seen a lot of war." Mara said seriously.

Luke looked distant for a second, preparing himself to be completely serious.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well besides being single minded- she moves like military when she walked straight anyways." Mara frowned. "And she reminded me of me, a lot."

Luke put his arm around her shoulders. "I don't see it, you're so much prettier."

"That's not what I meant Skywalker." Mara said frowning.

He knew it wasn't, but seeing her put him in an especially good mood, he couldn't help it. Or rather he didn't want to. His life seemed like a line of near disasters where someone he cared about was in danger, or the galaxy as a whole. As seriously as he took those situations, he'd learned to take the downtimes just as seriously. Most people probably thought of the Jedi master as serene and solemn, but even Yoda had taken the opportunity to joke.

"You think she's working for some remnant of the Empire? The unknown regions-" Luke tried to follow her line of thought.

"I don't know. I had a feeling like she's lost or she's just figured out she's been fighting on the wrong side." Mara became more pensive.

"You don't think she's going to try and kill me first do you?" Luke said grinning, hoping to alleviate her worries about her past by making light of them.

"You do seem to have that affect on women, but don't worry I'll protect you." Mara kissed him lightly. "Why are you in such a good mood?" Mara said suspiciously.

"I can't be happy to see you?" Luke's eyes twinkled. When she gave him that look he replied. "You'll never guess who just got back from a mission."

Zekaya was escorted to her room on the lower levels all the time memorizing her location in relation to the rest of the temple. Once inside she changed into the simplier Jedi garb Frida had provided and set to work destroying what remained of her personal affects. She had a few old credits that wouldn't be too suspect but what little she had carried with her had to go. She used the force to burn her Alliance Idencard card until not even Mara Jade could get any information out of it. What else would Mara check? Her lightsabers wouldn't be an issue for many years yet not if Frida was still working here.

Normally when she was put in a locked room she would find the quickest way out, but there really wasn't anywhere to go. If she'd had a ship it was vaporized, and stealing one wouldn't be wise if she was stuck here. The moment for a pointless suicide had passed, she couldn't live, but she couldn't kill herself. No one could save her. Zekaya was nobody to everyone.

They had been in hyperspace, forcing her to eat something.

_"You are out of your mind! To confront him is suicidal, do you understand? Suicidal!" Avi had said._

"Which is why you're going to give me one of your—"

" What? No! Has she mentioned that they are absolutely unstable? They are the OUT when you have no other. The scientist who made it was a worst case scenario safety freak vanarrde-" Hirina had actually shook her.

"There is nothing wrong with vanaarde technology!" Avi argued defensively. 

"Hirina would you rather I went in without it? Without an out?"

Hirina changed the subject "What do you possibly hope to accomplish?" followed right after by Avi "We didn't bring you back just so you could get yourself killed at the first available opportunity!"

"No matter where I go he's going to find me, and I don't want to be prey anymore." She countered strongly through her body's trembling.

"Please, don't make me lose you too." Hirina had said. Did some part of this new woman remember her friend's loss?

"I, I can't do it anymore. I know you look to me to be strong, but I've got too much of my father in me. I break." They had held her close then providing comfort and trying to keep her with them.

"At least come with us and see your family, they missed you terribly, or your other friends. Please?"

"Please trust that this is what the force wants me to do, that I can succeed." Hirina had nodded slowly. Avi couldn't do even that. 

She'd taken her old ship and left soon after, with an out, of sorts but no way of returning. That had been a one way trip, like this was.

The next morning Frida had come to pick her up to take her back to the med center to check on her vitals.

The Skywalkers had come soon after. Mara never could let a puzzle rest until she had solved it, or blown it up.

"Feeling better?" Mara asked.

"Well considering that I spent the night in a jail cell, fine," Zekaya said flippantly, much like a teenager would.

"You're looking a lot better ?" Luke questioned.

"I'm a quick healer," Zekaya responded, refusing to take the bait. The less they knew the better.

"Now that you've had time to think." And hopefully come to your senses. Mara thought.

"How did you really acquire two lightsabers?" Luke asked probing. He wasn't the easiest person to lie to, when you were used to trusting him.

"The purple one is mine, the other-" Zekaya's voice broke. "was a… a close friend's. Who I didn't kill." That she directed at Mara before becoming less vehement. "It reminds me of those I have lost."

_She's telling the truth._ Mara sent.

Luke tested one of the lightsabers in his hand. Both were well crafted but different enough to make him think that they weren't made by the same person. The lightsaber he ignited was deep purple. "Who taught you how to make this?"

Here came the beginning of no doubt a million tricky questions.

"Well that puts me in a bind, you see." Zekaya's lip twitched. "I could tell you the truth and you wouldn't believe me, and if I told you a lie she'd know." Zekaya tilted her head towards Mara.

"It's true," Mara said amused.

"Well, I can't give this back to you until I know you can use it responsibly," Luke said in authoritative teacher mode.

"And how do you propose I prove that?" Zekaya asked from his side.

Mara grinned. "Oh, we have someone in mind."

That could be very very bad. For one thing- Mara was grinning, she rarely grinned. Zekaya was led outside the temple. She had to wonder if they were escorting her off-planet, she couldn't be considered THAT much of a threat. Maybe another lie would let her stay?

"Luke?" A man around her age said. No way. She looked him up and down in surprise.

"Kyp, I'd like to introduce you to Zekaya, she may be staying here for a while."

Yeah, we've already met, jerk.

"Hello," Kyp said smoothly eying her with green eyes that reminded her of the dead.

Zekaya raised an eyebrow.

"So, all I have to do is beat him then?"

Mara smiled. "Smart girl." 

Zekaya took her lightsaber and stepped forward with anticipation.

"What? I'm not going to fight a vapin girl!" Kyp said taken back by her enthusiasm to fight him.

"So you've killed Jedi before eh? Well have I introduced you to Kyp yet?" Luke said keeping a straight face.

Kyp looked between the girl and Luke.

"What? I thought you'd forgiven me-" Kyp's voice because a little squeakier as he imitated Calrissian. Kyp began to back up.

Luke thought the younger man's sheer horror was humorous. Mara grinned.

Luke shrugged.

The couple moved to a safe distance to watch.

Zekaya ignited her purple lightsaber and brought it to attention.

"You brought a dark Jedi to the Academy?" Kyp yelled to Luke as he blocked her first attack. "What kind of teacher _are_ you?"

"Nothing here seemed to challenge you so-" Luke called.

At first her attacks seemed completely random and he might have thought so if she wasn't wielding the saber as if it was a part of her.

She didn't even glance at the blade. It was when she started to imitate some of his favorite moves that he realized that she was mocking him. His eyes widened fractionally and her lips twitched in what might have been a satisfied grin.

Ten seconds after that it was all over. He found himself on the ground, both lightsabers pointed at his jugular. It had been so artfully done, she'd disarmed him without well dis-arming him.

"You're pretty good," Kyp said generously.

"You too," Zekaya smiled slightly. "I'm just better."

Kyp scowled. "Are you going to let me up? Because besides what he said, Luke won't let you kill me." 

Zekaya smirked but stepped away. "As you wish, Master," she mocked him by bowing slightly before turning her back on him.

It wasn't so much that she was so much better with lightsabers than him but that she knew him, she knew his weaknesses.

And he did not, yet. She looked up at the Jedi Masters in question.

"Well, that proves that she's been trained," Mara said brushing off her pants.

"With the added bonus of humbling Kyp." Luke grinned. "I think we have an audience."

Mara heard a few claps behind them and glanced back.

"You know, now all your students will want lightsabers."

"Good." Luke said wiping off his pants completely unnecessarily, the match hadn't been long enough for dust to settle on his black pants.

Several of the students had heard that someone was going to duel Kyp and the lighsaber-hungry youngsters had perched themselves on the temple itself.

"I thought Kyp was good?" Raynar said confused. Many of the students waved or cheered outright.

"Do you think I could be her apprentice?" Tenel Ka wondered.

"I think you have to be older to get a master." Jaina said, also disappointed. To be able to take out your opponent like that.

"It's weird, but she looks kinda like Mom, if mom dyed her hair, had become a Jedi and wasn't nice." Jacen goaded his sister.

"No way. She doesn't look anything like Mom, you're just homesick," Jaina argued, falling for it. Jaina tilted her head and frowned looking at Zekaya, something _was_ weird about her.

"Am not, Jaya."

Lowbacca roared something to the effect that they shouldn't aruge over something so petty. Tenel Ka nodded in agreement.

"She is a Jedi though, this is a fact," Tenel Ka said.

"I wish I had my lightsaber already," Jacen said impatiently. "What color do you think you'll get?"

"Color doesn't matter friend Jacen," Tenel Ka said.

"As long as mine isn't girly purple like hers or his I'll be fine," Jaina said pointing at the two Jedi with distain.

Lowbacca roared his opinion.

"Well I hope mine will be green like Uncle Lukes." Jacen wished fervently.

"A green lightsaber is not going to make you skilled with it, Jace," Jaina stuck out her tongue.

"Hey, I think she's looking our way," Jacen said and shivered. There was something about her that made him shiver. He couldn't decide whether it was hate, fear or something else entirely but when she looked at him, or maybe it was all the students, it felt like she could see all the pranks you'd pulled and was going to tell everyone your most embarrassing moments.

"Is that sufficient?" The woman said curtly to Uncle Luke tearing her eyes away from the watching students.

"Now will you tell us who trained you?" Luke inquired hopefully.

"Of course," Zekaya said in good spirits. "I was trained by the best."

No one else got the joke.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 4**

Over the next few days the Jedi masters tested the extent of her training, and interrogated Zekaya at every possible opportunity.

"Who's going to come after you? You said it was something we couldn't handle. Prepare us." Mara said putting her arm around her new 'friend'. 

"I told you before, if I told you the truth you wouldn't believe me, and if you did it could only put you in danger," Zekaya said shaking her off.

"I think we can handle danger," Luke said.

"But my conscience can't. He isn't after you," Zekaya said shaking her head in a familiar way.

Luke blinked. And Zekaya could see that she'd unwittingly reminded him of his sister.

All this lying was tiring. She had to remain on guard constantly for a slip up, or a casual mind probe. They had tried bribery in the way of food and machines to tinker with, and they'd applied to her ego.

"So you can handle it by yourself then?" Kam stared at her.

"I didn't say- anything. I was, was disoriented. It doesn't concern you," Zekaya said, feeling like they were trying to annoy the information out of her now.

"Who's 'he'?" Tionne asked swiftly. "Is he the one that gave you those lightsaber wounds."

Zekaya paused and ran her hand through her hair. They were trying to trick her into telling the truth. She had to slow this down before she blurted it out of frustration. Which having been tortured before she knew was probable.

"Which lightsaber inflicted scar would that be?" Zekaya said. "You'll have to be more specific."

"So you're saying your whole distressed damsel a few days ago- was all an act?" Mara said putting her hand on her lightsaber. "For all we know you're really here to kill the Hapan heir."

"Tenel Ka?" Zekaya said, confused. "Why would-"

"There you see, you even know your target's name," Mara turned to Luke. "Didn't we just dismiss her highness's bodyguards? I don't think Hapes would like to know that their next queen mother is studying with a security threat."

Zekaya growled in frustration. She kicked herself for having leaked that knowledge. She even went so far as to bite her lip to keep from spilling out some creative Huttish insults.

"She could even be after the Chief-Of State's children," Mara said to Luke.

Zekaya threw her head back wanting to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

She stared at the ceiling and said clearly. "I mean the Solos no harm what so ever." And she fervently did, if there was a way out of it.

"We need some assurance that you aren't a threat to our students, if you know of another threat we need to know about it," Kam said arms behind his head. "You won't even tell us where you're from. 'Far away' isn't even a region."

"I've moved around a lot," Zekaya said glancing at Mara. "I've lived everywhere from the lower levels of Courasant to the outer rim."

_At least she's telling the truth there_. Mara glanced at the other teachers.

"I find it odd that if you're so innocent that you destroyed all of your identifying personal affects."

Zekaya was silent. No argument there. She wasn't an innocent.

"And yet you can't give us a single reference. Family, friends, bosses," Kyp enjoyed annoying his competition.

"That's complicated," Zekaya said crossing her arms and keeping her distance from Mr. Manipulative Planet Killer.

"Everything is complicated with you," Mara said, clearly losing patience.

"You think I like keeping this to myself?" Zekaya said before shutting her mouth.

Mara's lip twitched ever so slightly. So that was it, Mara was grilling her for information, waiting for her to break.

"Are you afraid we'll send you home if we knew?" Tionne asked no doubt playing good Jedi, to Mara's Sith.

"Look," Zekaya snorted and spread her hands expressively. "If you were able send me home, I'd tell you everything." She must have done something incriminating in her gesturing. Kriff!

"Corellian?" Luke asked incredulously.

Mara back looked at him, no doubt remembering her greeting about the Corellian hells. Kriff!

"Tell us where it is, and I'll fly you there myself," Kyp interrupted eagerly. Zekaya didn't like being grateful to him.

It's not simply a matter of spatial distance bantha brain. "It's not possible to go back."

"Exile?"

"Not exactly, no." Zekaya said flippantly.

Mara's eyes felt like laser bolts.

"Let's just say I don't want to be forced to serve an Emperor." That certainly made Mara shut up.

Luke stared right through her. Zekaya squirmed. He had a way of figuring people out.  
His eyes went to Mara, communicating. What did they know? The room became silent but she knew they were still discussing her. They couldn't know, she comforted herself, she had too much practice raising her shields. That and her new subtle force 'appearance' wouldn't give her away. The first few hours she hadn't had it, but her distress must have marred her features. Or they wouldn't be having this discussion.

"Your Force-signature is resonating. In the Force you look like two people in one space." 

He was getting way too close. She couldn't claim to have the remnants of a Siamese twin. Mara would see the lie before she finished that sentence. She needed to distract them from that informative line of thought without revealing that that was what she was trying to do.

Zekaya bit her lip as she felt pressure on her mind. A wave of dizziness momentarily overtook her reason.

"We're already here."


End file.
